


Tender Links

by WerewolvesAreReal



Series: Shapes and Shards [2]
Category: His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Daemons, Angst, Daemons, Gen, Genocide, Vorta - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-03
Updated: 2014-08-03
Packaged: 2018-02-11 13:40:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,412
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2070318
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WerewolvesAreReal/pseuds/WerewolvesAreReal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>At one point, people realize that children fully Separated by the age of three sometimes have special daemons.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tender Links

Among the memory of the Link there is a word that is both sacred and cursed. _Cresela._ To some, a memory; to others, a lesson.

To all of them, in the shared mind of the great connection, it means _home,_ and it means _betrayal._

* * *

 

There is no memory of the first pair. That is like asking of the first fish to develop lungs, or the first air-breathing creature to crawl across the sand. But as long as the Creselans _were_ , the fluid-shifting Companions walked by their sides.

Not always so fluid, though – not then.

* * *

 

There is not a first, but there are notable stories.

Terden is the most notable early philosopher whose writings survive intact to the Sundering.

Terden's daemon takes the form of a maelektic fox in his latter years. He claims the creatures' wide ears signify that he possesses a corresponding ability to hear the voices of the gods, which is widely believed. He also widely encourages that stringent scientific methods should be applied to all research, which is not. Still, he is well remembered for his theories about the causes of Settling, dual partner death, Separation pain, and early daemon shapeshifting.

Terden is also the first philosopher to write about – to predict – the vague possibility of Severing.

* * *

 

In the year 870 by the Creselan standard calendar – their last standard calendar, anyway – a fad starts to develop in the eastern hemisphere based on Terden's writings. It becomes fashionable, among aristocrats, to fight daemon against daemon. Teenagers with Unsettled daemons have their partners shift in competitions of creativity, and some bold few – the very bravest – see how far their bonds can stretch.

Some of them stretch these bonds so far the bonds seem to _break._

But there's no permanent damage, of course. You _can't_ damage a bond.

* * *

 

Separation, people start to say, isn't such a bad thing. Oh, sure, your daemon resents you awhile, and people say it's really difficult, but only if you do it the hard way, walking across a desert or some such. And who wants _that?_

As time goes on, it gets easier and easier to Separate. A plane can go up into the atmosphere, and a daemon will be confined as a Creselan sky-dives. A Creselan and his daemon can be put on vehicles facing opposite directions, drugged asleep, only to awaken hours later pulled apart. Easy. Simple.

And after, well, then you have _options,_ don't you? It's so much easier, being able to move away from a daemon. Not natural, some say, but...

Well, times change.

* * *

 

On some planets, Separation never really takes off. Typically it becomes _known,_ through one way or another. Some terrible tragedy forces apart forces apart humanoid and daemon, they're reunited, and afterward their bond is affected. On planets like Earth, Separation is the source of myth and legend. It's spoken of in conjunction with magic and sorcery, with witchcraft and ghosts and gods. In certain cultures the Separated were once revered. On Qonos all warriors who reach the status of general are expected to undergone the pain of Separation, as an ultimate test; but Vulcans, for reasons they refuse to discuss with anyone, consider the business dangerous and avoid Separation at all costs. Betazoids outright shun their Separated.

But Cresela is especially unique. Because Separation becomes neither revered nor reviled, which are the two usual statuses. Instead, it is studied, found good, employed, and made _normal._

There is a reason this pattern is not seen more frequently. People from Earth might refer to the natural tendency as _Darwinism._

* * *

 

By the time Cresela is making it's first tentative in-solar system space explorations, Separation is the norm.

In fact, it's considered strange for someone to _not_ be Separated by the time they're an adult. Inconvenient, too, and plain inconsiderate of others, who will have to be careful not to get between you and your daemon. So typically people get Separated now just as a matter of course, if nothing else.

* * *

 

At one point, people realize that children fully Separated by the age of three sometimes have special daemons. Some one in eight not only permanently retain their shape-shifting skills, but also gain a new plasticity – the ability to transform into inorganic materials. Into non-living, or at least non-animal, material of any size or shape.

In the uproar of this discovery, the implications are not understood until far too late.

And the Separations continue.

* * *

 

Approximately ten years after the child Separation fad begins, two Separated, 'inorganic' daemons breed and have a child.

By themselves.

A child with no companion.

People notice.

* * *

 

Confusion. Understandable. Concern. Admirable. Then, almost, it becomes an obsession. Where is the child? Where could it be? There are false reports from all over the world, but the question is a mystery. Some people theorize that the strange new trend of infant Separating means that the child and daemon were born apart, but _where is the child?_

Then, another report.

A child in Itahin city dies of the flu. His Separated daemon lives – happily.

And now – now people start to panic.

* * *

 

Something, clearly, has to be done. No one is sure _what,_ but _something._ Suddenly, everyone questions the 'inorganic' daemons, and the children bonded to them. Are the children sociopaths? Deranged? Are the defective daemons dangerous? There's no way to tell, but 'yes' seems like the obvious, inescapable answer.

So obvious, in fact, that it's taken for granted without any research.

So the next question: how to respond?

Then, from one source, a myth, a legend:

_Severing._

On a global scale.

Except no one tells the globe.

* * *

 

It takes four years to implement a plan the world doesn't know is coming. There is terror in the streets, and the new daemons, who are at their center unchanged, are bewildered at the resentment they face. They grow defensive. Maybe, if the new daemons could Settle, they would take tiny prey-forms like abused children do, and people would pause. Reconsider their own hatred.

They don't settle. When confronted, they rise. Look larger. Try to intimidate, instead.

It doesn't go over well.

* * *

 

The Sundering is quick.

Over twenty percent of the planet's population die the first day from sheer shock; more, rendered catatonic, die quickly in the upcoming weeks. They are listless, inert, helpless. Lost Creselans and daemons both wander the surface in a fog, unable to find their partners, unable to _feel_ them if found. It is a mercy, really, to die.

Soon, only those few who have been fully Separated – and have 'inorganic' daemons – live. Ironically, these are the ones the Severing was most intended to help. But they, perhaps, suffer the most.

They live – but not happily, and not well. Something is missing. The Creselans have cut off their arms to stem a paper-cut, and now reel from the pain. And they are angry. The streets are gorged and stinking with the dead, their daemons are gone, and world is empty, and for _what?_

But the daemons are just as furious, just as betrayed, and, in a different way, maddened. Perhaps if that old Creselan philosopher were still alive he would say that the key difference between the daemons and the Creselans is freedom. The daemons are dependents made strong – the Creselans are masters made powerless, without subjects, and they are lost. With blood literally flooding the streets, and angry accusations on all sides, well.

War is really inevitable.

And when one side is capable of shape-shifting, is it hard to imagine who wins?

* * *

 

The no-longer-daemons cannot stay surrounded by the billions of unburied dead. They leave, soaring through space as one unending body, beautiful, tragic. It is the first and last time the Link takes to space, and also the first time there _is_ a Link. It is there, on the slow journey for a new home, that the changelings start to heal – but they also speak among themselves, and stew in their fury over the long months of travel. Bitterness grows, and when they land on Kurill Prime the edges of the Link are hard with fear and suspicion.

There, on that small and forested world, they meet the Vorta. The Vorta, small and gentle, prey to a larger race of sentient predators. The Vorta, clever but as-yet without daemons. The Vorta, who show them kindness unlooked-for, and expect nothing.

The Vorta, who, when the predators are dead, look up to _them._

They are Founders to a new world. There are no daemons.

There will never be daemons again.


End file.
